Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

There is a product called Bag Buddies that I have used for transporting fish. Little tablets that you drop in the bag as you add fish and water. The tablet dissolves, releasing a light sedative and oxygen.

Hi David, I have some news for you straight from the horses mouth. Spoke with our aquaculture course co-ordinator at Epping tonight. He had only 3 pieces of advice:

The fish MUST be purged prior to transport to remove solids from their gut that they would otherwise crap out during transport causing bio load problems.

The only other thing u need is an oxygen cylinder, industrial is fine, no need for medical. Place a gas reg, tube and airstone on the end of ur gas bottle. Calibrate it to between 2 and 4 litres per minute. With a 5 hour trip, u may need a couple bottles, (d-size.)

Make sure the water for transport is fresh salted, not the culture water the fish were in. They may have just been fed, CO2 and pH etc could therefor be all over the place. Make sure the transport vessel has a lid and fill the vessel to the max. This will stop wave action stuff happening in ur tank which will stress the fish, surprisingly.

He advised that doing these things will mean you can transport quite high densities of fish, very safely.

Hope this helps, Tragic.

Ya don't feed for a day is my method. Moved a fair dam heap of fish last few days, only losses from me rushing acclimatisations and killing breeders in front of their breeder... doh.
Some where bagged and boxed, others buckets with battery powered airpumps running sponge filters. Cannister filter and other filter media also went in buckets with just aistones.
Prob 100 different cichlids, catfish, knifes, loaches and natives, all good size and 3 deaths. Could have been worse and glad it's over.
Dam I hate moving fish AND TANKS! Much better when the fastways dude just rocks up and drops off a few boxes of bagged fish.
Oxygen cylinder tho eh? Used it to fill bags but ya sneaky!

Couple of ship fish links.
http://www.uniquaria.com/articles/shipping.html
http://www.aquaticeco.com/index.cfm/fus ... il/ttid/24
http://lama.kcc.hawaii.edu/external/cts ... ipping.htm

sum good data there

I’ve transported 2 lots of fish now with mixed results
The first was in December using square containers 600 x 400 x300
That was my first mistake, I believe the wave action was too great & stressed the fish too much.
2nd mistake was the density of fish to water (following advice from supplier). I had 70% death rates. Not a good feeling collecting the dead over the next 2 weeks. The dog loved it. His coat is so shiny.
Our 2nd try was on Friday. I used 70 litre barrels with a screw on lid. Inside we placed 2 x 2 litre containers & had little to no wave action.
We used 2 battery-powered air pumps per barrel. I don’t think I’ll use them again except as a back up, we had 2 fail luckily in different barrels. So far 100% success rate.

Did you half fill the 2 x 2litre containers or just leave them empty and floating?

Empty and floating
Fill the barrels so when the lid is on it pushes the containers into the water.

Gotcha... thanks

Janet, I've heard of these, they're great for fish with net-shock. Like live fish you're catching with a net or rod and wish to keep alive.
Just be aware, they can only be used the once. The chemical reaction that oxygenates the water only occurs the first time you add the tablet as the water becomes saturated, and non-reactive.